Retail Consumer Products Sector Product: Range of Storage & Organization Products Service Used: Agent Direct

Sales Direct’s LLC’s president Howard Lalgee met with Whitmor’s president Peter Felsenthal at the International Housewares Show in Chicago. Further to this meeting Peter had additional conversations with Howard and a decision was made to proceed with Sales Direct to help Whitmor locate a distributor for the U.K. market.

Whitmor completed and returned the Agent Direct order form to Sales Direct’s office on April 15th. Sales Direct emailed the Agent Direct Briefing form through to myself, Melanie Buchanan, of Whitmor. The briefing was very thorough and was obviously created from a great deal of expertise in the business of distributors in the U.S. It provided all the questions necessary for Sales Direct to proceed effectively and without additional questions.

I completed and returned the Agent Direct Briefing Form to Cathy Peake (Project Manager) on April 17th. The process was very smooth and the questions were excellent and provided Sales direct with a good summary of the information they needed with regards to our company.

Cathy Peake prepared the telephone script and Initial Supply Proposal quickly and efficiently and completed the Desk Research by May 7th. I approved the marketing documents with very little revision and target list on May 9th.

Sales Direct began calling target distribution companies on May 12th.

Forty-seven companies were identified by Sales Direct as being potential distribution partners. Eleven companies responded to Sales Direct’s approach on behalf of Whitmor. The Sales Director of one company (a major UK company) offered to guide the Sales Direct contact to what they considered the best alternative distributor if they found that the fit was not quite right for their own company.

Following in depth discussions two potential distributors emerged as clear favorites. I have spoken to both companies several times and am very optimistic about a future relationship with one of the companies.

While a decision has not been made at the moment we are confident about a successful and mutually beneficial relationship.

We believe that Sales Direct has done an excellent job in bringing the right companies to our attention and narrowing the field dramatically. This has saved us a great deal of time and we would recommend Sales Direct in the future.